Elon Musk asked Tesla's Chief Designer to redo the famous 2019 window test. He asked the outspoken CEO if he was sure about it, and the former "Technoking of Tesla" confidently said "yes." Shortly after, a ball was thrown. However, it may not have convinced anyone about the vehicle's special glass.
The Mad Max meets DeLorean version of a battery-powered pickup truck is real. You will see it in your neighborhood or at the nearest shopping center. Don't get your hopes up because the unit will remain a unicorn for quite some time. Tesla has to deal with a backlog of reservations before making new custom builds.
But will you want one? That's certainly up to you and you only. For now, let's see what Elon Musk and Tesla gained from redoing the infamous throw-a-ball at the driver-side window test.
Four years ago, a Cybertruck prototype with pop-up door handles was shown to the world. In an attempt to prove that the vehicle was very different from what other automakers sold at the time or were planning to bring to market, Elon Musk decided to have Franz von Holzhausen beat at it with a sledgehammer and throw a metal ball at the driver and left rear windows.
As you may know, the last part of the test failed spectacularly. The "unbreakable," "armored," or "shatter-proof" glass did what almost any other such car part would and, well… It broke. Shortly after, Elon Musk awkwardly said that there was room for improvement.
Fast forward four years, and the Cybertruck is ready for production. At the delivery event, Elon Musk asked Tesla's Franz von Holzhausen to throw a ball at the Cybertruck's left-side windows again. The man repeated the experiment from 2019.
However, the key difference is that in the span of around 48 months, the metal ball became a baseball. The good news? The "Tesla Armor Glass" survived the impact unscathed. So, if a kid ever throws a baseball at your 6,600-lb all-electric pickup truck, it'll be fine.
Photo: Tesla on Twitter (X)
Elon Musk said the glass is "basically rock-proof" and underlined that the Cybertruck is "bullet-tough." The executive confirmed that the pickup truck is Tesla's first EV built on the 800V architecture platform. In a nutshell, that means it should replenish its battery pretty fast when hooked to a 350-kW charger like the V4 Supercharger or Electrify America's NACS-equipped stalls.
Over 114,000 people watched the Cybertruck delivery event live. However, at the time of writing, Elon Musk's version of Twitter says the video amassed well over two million views.
Maybe that's telling of how things really are with the pickup truck reservations. Almost two million people might have registered their interest, but only about 5% of them are invested in this new story of the world's most valuable automaker.
Was this another marketing ploy for Tesla to receive extended free coverage? We'll let you answer it.
At the end of the day, as Zack Nelson says, "glass is glass and glass brakes." That includes even Tesla's "Armor Glass." A truly bulletproof windowed area is possible, but that would add considerably to the vehicle's gross weight, which, in turn, impacts range.
Maybe Tesla will debut a Cybertruck with bulletproof windows for law enforcement and well-off, vetted customers at some point. But until it does, you'll have to settle for the "bullet-tough" Tesla-designed stainless steel "super alloy" and the "Armor Glass" that's not armored.
Car shows on TV and his father's Fiat Tempra may have been Florin's early influences, but nowadays he favors different things, like the power of an F-150 Raptor. He'll never be able to ignore the shape of a Ferrari though, especially a yellow one. Full profile
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